


Once Burned

by highwayKing



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Gen, Oneshot, flashback to traumatic events, set after the short 'Stan's tattoo'
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:53:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8340547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/highwayKing/pseuds/highwayKing
Summary: Dipper had passed the line when he wanted to know what his great uncle’s mysterious tattoo was. And now Stan has to deal with things he didn't have to for a long time.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Little thing I did trying to get over my writer’s block. I have to say it turned out better then I anticipated.  
> The idea had been in my head for a while so it was time for it to get written already. Hope you guys enjoy it :)

Stan was beyond pissed. If he finds Dipper the kid is going to regret it like nothing in his life before. First he is going to take away that stupid camera of his and preferably throw it into the lake. Then he is going to ground him for the end of the summer, no more of these stupid monster hunts and mysteries. The kid was getting crazier and crazier with his attempts to find the truth, it was driving him mad. And while he mostly wouldn’t care, but today he stepped over a line.

He was just so tired of having to watching his back all the time. There were monsters in these wood and pretending they don’t exist was hard enough, sometimes he just wanted to move down to town where he wouldn’t be bothered by them, but alas, he had a duty that bound him here and he grew to love this rickety old shack enough to throw away that idea the minute it resurfaced.

And, while there were monsters, Stan couldn’t forget of the people as well. He was terrified that someone from his past would come knocking and he wouldn’t know what to do. Now more so then ever.

For years that had been a genuine concern. In the past he was scared of being recognized as ether the criminal that he was or the fraud he is right now. Not even speaking about business competitors, he just had to think about Gideon and the insane things he had been up to get the Mystery Shack closed.

Then the kids, Soos, Wendy, Dipper and Mabel came along and he had another worry altogether. He feared that they would discover things they shouldn’t, hear thing they weren’t supposed to hear, or see things that could incriminate him on all different levels then he already is. He is most worried about Dipper, and today the kid just confirmed his fears.

Dipper was more curious for his own good. Stan figured that as long as he is distracted with Gravity Falls’ weirdness he could get away with many things if he just watched his back a bit better. However, now that Dipper started to get nosy about his ‘mysteries’ too he had to do something about it.

But why on Earth did the kid had to go after his burn scar?

He could have handled everything else so much better. Stan had hundreds of stories for every possible scenario, ready to lie his ass off even if he was kicked up in the middle of the night. But his scare was a sensitive subject, he preferred not to think about it and for the most part he managed to almost completely forget it even existed. For the most part.

It still ached now and then.

Now his shoulder felt numb, yet he could still feel the ghost of a pain that long had passed. Stan rubbed the offending spot and cracked his back to disguise it as him being sore. Stupid thing, why couldn’t it go away?

Never mind that he had better thing to do. First he had to find Dipper and ground him for life, then he is going to take a long relaxing bath since he couldn’t have one while the kid was pestering him.

 

Unfortunately, Stan couldn’t find that little rascal anywhere. He was lucky, once night had fallen he was positive that Dipper was up in their room, but he was too tired to bust down the door and get that camera. Instead he went to his own room ignoring his growling stomach and flopped down on his bed. He was grateful for the dreamless sleep he was blessed with.

Next morning however something more was aching then his shoulder.

Stan’s stomach was a vengeful bastard. Since it didn’t have anything last night it was demanding double its share.

Stan pushed himself up and he was ready to curse ever deity known to mankind. He hoped that there is something in the fridge, just to keep him going while he makes some breakfast for the kids.

Speaking about the kid, he glanced at the clock. It was seven in the morning. That would have been early in any summer day, but not for the Pines family. Try living with two hyperactive kids eager to make the most of every moment of their summer, they aren’t going to sleep till noon that’s for sure. He wasn’t worried about them; they were twelve, perfectly capable of making a toast or cereals. Stan just hoped that there was something left for him as well.

Tired and still not quiet woken up Stan stumbled out of his room. He was still dressed in his boxers and wife beater; he had half a mind to get dressed before going to the kitchen just in case Dipper was still up to his schemes. But he was too lazy to be bothered.

He stumbled into the kitchen and just as he expected the kids were up and about. Mabel was standing on a stool making some scrambled eggs with beacon. Stan shivered a bit when she grabbed a handful of glitter from the jar just in her reach and threw it into the eggs. The bright yellow mass gained some pinkish taint to it. And it sparkled.

Stan reminded himself that Mabel’s cooking is survivable and strangely delicious even if it left an aftertaste in your mouth and made your tongue glisten. To his starving stomach that sounded more than amazing.

He yawned. “Morning.”

“Good morning, Grunkle Stan!” Mabel greeted as she scrambled the eggs mixing the pink glitter thoroughly. “Get your taste buds ready for Mabel’s extra special breakfast surprise! Are you hungry, Grunkle Stan?” 

“Starving, pumpkin.”

He ignored how the eggs were sparkling. He hoped that she wouldn’t do anything too outrages to the bacon that was sizzling right beside the eggs in a different pan; that would be blasphemous. But knowing her he expected to find some heart and star shaped cupcake decorations in it.

Stan’s attention turned to Dipper who was sitting at the table. His little note pad was right beside his plate and he was nervously fidgeting around with his fork. It was obvious that he was pretending that he wasn’t penning down his findings, and by the way he had been acting it was easy to guess what he was writing about his ‘tattoo’.

He really didn’t want to deal with this right now; he just wanted eat the weird eggs and go about his day.

“Morning, Dipper,” he sat down at the place of the table that was usually his, an empty plate and a cup of coffee was already sat there. It was strangely devoid of any glitter, so it could only be sat by the other half or the twins. “Thanks,” Stan smiled a bit.

Dipper, instead of answering, took a drink from his orange juice.

“Grunkle Stan, Dipper wants to tell you something.”

Dipper nearly choked on his juice.

Stan smirked. This is going to be good.

“What is it, kid,” he said on his usual gruff voice. He picked up the newspaper and lifted it before his face pretending that he wasn’t paying that much attention, but in reality he was grinning from ear to ear behind the paper.

“Uhm, Grunkle Stan?” Dipper started nervous like he usually was when he had to talk about something important with his great uncle. Stan was finding delight in the kids stumbling for words. It was a sweet revenge for yesterday.

“There is something I have to tell you.”

Behind them Mabel was humming to herself. None of them saw as she sampled the eggs. “Hmm, needs some spice in it,” she took the chilly spice from the shelf and generously poured it into the would-be breakfast.

“It’s about yesterday, I…” he stopped.

Stan wanted to peek over his newspaper put he resisted.

Dipper sighed. “I’m sorry.”

Now Stan did peek over. Dipper didn’t look as distressed as he expected him to be, he seemed more guilty than anything else. He felt for him, but just for a little bit. The kid didn’t deserve to feel guilty about being curious, but he at least should feel bad about how he was going about it.

Granted, Stan wasn’t the most cooperative at the time, but he was panicking on the inside when the kid kept pestering him.

“I should have realized that your tattoo might be a sensitive topic to you.”

The sizzling sound caught Stan’s ears. It was the delicious bacon in the pan getting ready for being consumed by him and the hungry kids. He knew this. But his mind went somewhere else and suddenly the smell of his own burning skin overwhelmed him. His scream rang deep in his ear.

“I shouldn’t have been pushing you, you have the right not to tell me,” Dipper continued oblivious about how Stan seemed to turn paler. But how could he, the newspaper was covering his face from view.

Mabel flipped the bacons over, the sizzling intensified for a minute and it was like it was burning right in his ears.

Stan wanted to throw up. The spicy, salivating smell of the kitchen was overridden by the nose wrinkling phantom sensation and he just wanted to stand up and go out, get away from everything.

He didn’t realized how he started breathing harder.

“I should have-… are you alright, Grunkle Stan?”

Stan almost missed it, his hand dropped reviling his white as a sheet face slightly as he was in another time altogether. The numbing, aching feeling started creeping up his shoulder. It went down his back, on his arm, up his neck. He had an urge to rub it, to make it go away.

He glanced up. Dipper was looking at him and it was apparent that if he said anything wrong the kid would fling into a full out panic attack. Even Mabel was looking at him now, breakfast forgotten and bacon still sizzling, the oil bubbling under the grease and turning the meat crunchy and deep red.

Stan swallowed, his stomach dropped. He felt himself starting to sway slightly. The last thing he wanted to do was faint right there seemingly for nothing. He didn’t wanted to make the kids panic, what sort of guardian would he be then. Yes, he could blame it on being old, but that’s not an excuse for scaring them, like how he was now doing.

But he had one last line of defense. He grabbed the cup and gulped half of the coffee down. It was strong; the sugar didn’t mix with it good enough and it was a bitter sweet concoction that made the color return to his face. That was good; the sensation of wanting to throw up was gone along with the swaying. He let out a satisfying sigh. But the numbing feeling in his shoulder stayed. He got everything under control.

However he still had to calm his gremlins down.

He grunted. “What? My blood sugar ran out, I’m an old man! That stuff happens.”

By the looks on their faces he could tell that they aren’t buying it.

“What were you saying, kid?” Stan tried to rail the conversation back to where it started. He took another sip from the coffee and concentrated on that instead of the sounds of the cooking food.

Dipper was a bit shocked, but it seemed that soon he decided that it was indeed an old man thing. “I wanted to say that I’m sorry for being so nosy. I won’t ask you to show me your tattoo anymore.”

Well, that was a relief. He nodded and decided to leave it at that.

Soon Mabel sat their full plates down before them and Stan wasn’t even surprised when the scrambled eggs had a pink sparkly tint to it and red dots in it, the bacon was glistening with grease and had a terrific smell that made his stomach growl.

To think that this made him almost faint made him more embarrassed then he has ever been. He felt himself starting to heat up and no doubt he is starting to become red in the face.

Stan dug in, and he had to admit that it he was met with a pleasant surprise. Everything that Mabel makes manages to turn out to be amazing despite how questionable it looks. Concentrating on it helped to take his mind off of what just happened earlier.

On the other side of the table the kids looked at him a strange, before Mabel went into vivid details what she was planning that day. Stan listened intently and throwing in his own comments here and there. He could see that Dipper while he was quietly eating his breakfast he looked at Stan with a curious glint in his eyes when he thought Stan wasn’t watching. Yeah, he is going to have to watch his back a bit more it seems.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
